My trips are getting a little jumbled together in the blog timeline, but I’m trying to get caught up with my experiences in something that resembles an organized/readable pile of words that makes sense to anybody besides me. Thanks for bearing with my insanity and reading along all this time. I know I write [too much] a lot but I love you guys for sticking with me. It means so much to me to be able to share these experiences with people, even when you’re not here with me.
Two weekends ago (yikes, it’s been a while), Poppy, Sarah, and I got to meet up with some of our volunteer friends from Barra Honda. With minimal communication and a little bit of luck, we all ended up on the same bus headed to the Llanos de Cortes waterfalls. Steph, Zach, Luca, and Sebastian all made it down to Liberia and we got to spend the entire afternoon at the waterfalls (same ones I went to in THIS post). Zach and Luca even teamed up with some Ticos (about 15 of them) who were building a human pyramid in the water and only knocked it over once! We got caught in the rain on the way back, but survived a very VERY wet walk home without any major issues. We met up for dinner and went out to celebrate my 21st birthday at a local restaurant/bar. Steph bought me a delicious birthday cocktail before we all called it an early night so we could get up the next morning.
The plan was to leave at 6am and head to Rincon de la Vieja, one of the closer volcanos in the region and spend both Saturday and Sunday hiking. The others made it, but I, unfortunately, ended up reaaaaally sick. I found out later that 10 volunteers and 5 Projects Abroad staff all got a severe bout of food poisoning from our dinner on Thursday night and we were all laid up in bed for the weekend. Less than exciting, I know, but that’s how it goes. I was bummed about missing the volcano, but at least I was sick on a weekend and didn’t have to miss work. I basically just wrote off that time to “Getting Better” and was ready to go again on Monday.
Last weekend was much more successful. About 20 volunteers headed to Playa Tamarindo, a local beach, on Friday to enjoy the sun and sand for the weekend. Saturday morning, I got to spend about 3 hours laying on the beach with one of the other girls before the skies opened and the rain (which lasted the rest of the afternoon) started. (Fun fact: I got woken up from my sunbathing nap by a bee sting on the ankle.) I grabbed my umbrella and headed down to the single main road of Tamarindo. Tamarindo is such a tourist town; they don’t even bother to mark prices in Costa Rican colones, everything’s just in dollars. The town basically exists because of the tourism, not the locals. While that can get old fast, it’s great for a stroll on a rainy afternoon. I systematically worked my way through every little souvenir shop looking through a never-ending rotation of butterfly towels, striped wood cutting boards, shell necklaces, and frog-painted shot glasses. Steph (from Barra Honda) arrived that afternoon as well and she and I went out to dinner at a delicious falafel place to catch up and swap stories. We went back to the hostel where she and most of the other volunteers were staying (I was in the one next door) and played Scrabble for a couple hours. I took a quick dip in the pool at my hostel (a hostel with a pool? Awesome!) before calling it an early night. Steph and I woke up early the next morning to get down to the beach for a couple hours before we had to leave and it was gorgeous as ever. Here are the pictures I took from sunset on Saturday night. The new ones (there’s only 7) start at number 71.
I’m planning on posting all my pictures from daily life in Liberia as well as pictures from the school by Tuesday night so keep an eye out for those as well. Chau!